Delhi HC refuses to direct sitting of assembly for tabling CAG reports
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday said there was an "inordinate delay" by the AAP government in tabling the CAG reports in the state assembly but refused to direct a special sitting of the legislature, saying it was "impractical" to hold a special sitting a few days before elections.
Justice Sachin Datta underlined the tabling of the audit reports was mandatory under the Constitution and directed the reports to be placed in the assembly by Delhi government after the elections as expeditiously as possible.
"It is quite evident that there has been an inordinate delay on the part of the respondents/Government of NCT of Delhi in taking requisite steps for laying the CAG Reports before the Legislative Assembly," the court said.
It went on, "In such a situation (when the current legislative assembly is about to expire), it would be impractical to hold a special sitting of the assembly... Given that the legislative assembly is at the fag end of its current term, the examination and scrutiny by the PAC (public accounts committee) will now take place only after the newly-elected assembly is re-convened."
The court is not inclined to accept the prayers of the petitioners for a mandamus to the speaker for summoning a special session of the legislative assembly at this stage, it added.
Opposition leader Vijender Gupta and BJP MLAs -- Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan -- filed the petition last year and sought a direction to the speaker to call a sitting of the assembly for tabling the CAG reports.
In a 31-page judgement, Justice Datta observed the timeline revealed the government's "disdainful disregard" of its constitutional obligations as it failed to act with alacrity in laying all the 14 CAG reports before the legislative assembly in the present session even after the LG approval.
The court therefore said once the legislative assembly was constituted and summoned pursuant to the elections, steps should be taken by Delhi government under the procedural rules for tabling the CAG reports as expeditiously as possible.
The court said laying the reports before the legislature comprising elected representatives was in the "nature of a mandatory constitutional imperative" and aimed to hold the government of the day accountable in the field of financial administration.
Although no time period was prescribed under the GNCTD Act to table the reports, it would be subversive of the constitutional mandate to withhold these reports from the legislature for an inordinately long period after it was forwarded by the CAG to the government, it added.
The court clarified that the primary onus to take requisite steps for laying the CAG report in the assembly was on the government and not on the speaker.
Further, under the Rules of Procedure, the power to convene a sitting of the legislative assembly, which had not been prorogued, was solely within the domain of the speaker, and it was not permissible for the court to intervene, it added.
Referring to the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Government of NCT Act, 1991, the 'Rules of Procedure' and the legal position of the Supreme Court, the court did not find it "tenable" to summon a special sitting of the legislative assembly.
The petitioners filed the plea through advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain.
The senior lawyers for the speaker and the government opposed the court passing a direction for calling a sitting of the assembly and said there was no urgency to table the reports at a stage when the assembly elections were to be held soon.
The CAG, in its reports, was critical of some of the AAP-led Delhi government's policies, including its now-scrapped excise policy for reportedly causing losses to the exchequer.
